Churchgoers, grocery shoppers among those taking advantage of CityLink service on Sunday

Sunday

Jun 8, 2014 at 6:37 PM

Thomas Bruch Journal Star entertainment reporter @thomasbruch

PEORIA — Getting to his job at Old Chicago restaurant in the Shoppes of Grand Prairie used to be a chore for Adam Saldana.

Most Sundays he wasn’t even scheduled to work without bus service to transport him there. When Saldana was set to work on a Sunday, he had to find someone he knew to drive him there.

But this particular Sunday was different. For the first time since 1970, bus service in Peoria is now provided on Sundays and Saldana’s ability to work a Sunday shift became hassle-free.

“Now my availability is wide open,” said Saldana, who also planned to stop by the mall after work. “It definitely helps.”

After a number of solicitations in recent years for Sunday bus transportation from CityLink, the company worked with its bus driver union to open up the day to bus service, which was previously considered a day off for those drivers.

“It takes a lot of people to operate a bus service,” said Anna Buehrer, CityLink director of public relations. “Our drivers are on the street every day, and they knew Sunday service was needed.”

Workers in retail, fast food, restaurant or the medical field who were previously stymied in transportation to work now have nine bus routes to accommodate their travel. CityLink provides about 20 routes during the work week, and researched the most heavily traveled routes on Saturday to land on the nine Sunday routes. Those routes do not include travel to Pekin or East Peoria.

Many of the people lining up at the CityLink Transit Center on Sunday morning for the first departures were grocery shoppers excited for the addition of another day to stock up on groceries. Another set of early riders Sunday were churchgoers. Bill Thome, 68, is an area missionary—and frequent bus rider—that likes to visit different churches. That was difficult prior to Sunday, but he was waiting for a bus to take him to Bethany Baptist Church and comforted that Peoria listened to its citizens in expanding bus service.

“People live in my building, and if they can’t afford a cab, they go nowhere,” Thome said. “It will really help people who are limited in their ability to get around.”

Thomas Bruch can be reached at 686-3188 or tbruch@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasBruch.